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Jackie Kay

Goodreads Author

Born

Glasgow, Scotland, The United Kingdom

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Children's Books, Poetry

Member Since

July 2010

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/jackiekay

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Born in Glasgow in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father, Kay was adopted by a white couple, Helen and John Kay, as a baby. Brought up in Bishopbriggs, a Glasgow suburb, she has an older adopted brother, Maxwell as well as siblings by her adoptive parents.

Kay's adoptive father worked full-time for the Communist Party and stood for election as a Member of Parliament, and her adoptive mother was the secretary of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Initially harbouring ambitions to be an actress, she decided to concentrate on writing after encouragement by Alasdair Gray. She studied English at the University of Stirling and her first book of poetry, the partially autobiographical The Adoption Papers, was published in Born in Glasgow in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father, Kay was adopted by a white couple, Helen and John Kay, as a baby. Brought up in Bishopbriggs, a Glasgow suburb, she has an older adopted brother, Maxwell as well as siblings by her adoptive parents.

Kay's adoptive father worked full-time for the Communist Party and stood for election as a Member of Parliament, and her adoptive mother was the secretary of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Initially harbouring ambitions to be an actress, she decided to concentrate on writing after encouragement by Alasdair Gray. She studied English at the University of Stirling and her first book of poetry, the partially autobiographical The Adoption Papers, was published in 1991, and won the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award. Her other awards include the 1994 Somerset Maugham Award for Other Lovers, and the Guardian Fiction Prize for Trumpet, based on the life of American jazz musician Billy Tipton, born Dorothy Tipton, who lived as a man for the last fifty years of her life.

Kay writes extensively stage, screen, and for children. In 2010 she published Red Dust Road, an account of her search for her birth parents, a white Scottish woman, and a Nigerian man. Her birth parents met when her father was a student at Aberdeen University and her mother was a nurse. Her drama The Lamplighter is an exploration of the Atlantic slave trade. It was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March 2007 and published in poem form in 2008.

Jackie Kay became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 17 June 2006. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University. Kay lives in Manchester.

Jackie Kay was born and brought up in Scotland. THE ADOPTION PAPERS (Bloodaxe, 1991) won the Forward Prize, a Saltire prize and a Scottish Arts Council Prize. DARLING was a poetry book society choice. FIERE, her most recent collection of poems was shortlisted for the COSTA award. Her novel TRUMPET won the Guardian Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the IMPAC award. RED DUST ROAD, (Picador) won the Scottish Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for the JR ACKERLEY prize and the LONDON BOOK AWARD. She was awarded an MBE in 2006, and made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002. Her book of stories WISH I WAS HERE won the Decibel British Book Award.
She also writes for children and her book RED CHERRY RED (Bloomsbury) won the CLYPE award. She has written extensively for stage and television. Her play MANCHESTER LINES produced by Manchester Library Theatre was on this year in Manchester. Her new book of short stories REALITY, REALITY was recently published by Picador. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.
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Jackie Kay’s books

Average rating: 3.96 · 15,512 ratings · 1,732 reviews · 105 distinct works • Similar authors

	Trumpet 4.06 avg rating — 7,405 ratings — published 1998 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Red Dust Road: An Autobiographical Journey 3.93 avg rating — 2,534 ratings — published 2010 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Adoption Papers 3.78 avg rating — 807 ratings — published 1991 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bessie Smith: A Poet's Biography of a Blues Legend 3.70 avg rating — 516 ratings — published 1997 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wish I Was Here 3.89 avg rating — 345 ratings — published 2006 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Why Don't You Stop Talking : Stories 3.78 avg rating — 340 ratings — published 2002 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reality, Reality 3.78 avg rating — 317 ratings — published 2011 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Lamplighter 4.24 avg rating — 248 ratings — published 2008 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fiere 3.94 avg rating — 235 ratings — published 2010 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Darling: New & Selected Poems 3.86 avg rating — 175 ratings — published 2007 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Jackie Kay (?)

“When the love of your life dies, the problem is not that some part of you dies too, which it does, but that some part of you is still alive.”
― Jackie Kay, Trumpet

tags: love, love-story, lovers

81 likes

“Loss isn't an absence after all. It is a presence. A strong presence right next to me. I look at it. It doesn't look like anything, that's what is so strange. It just fits in.”
― Jackie Kay, Trumpet

tags: grieve, life

30 likes

“My father had a lifelong terror, phobia whatever, about hospitals. Makes a lot of sense in hindsight. He was so scared of doctors, he passed that on to me. That's what parents exist for: to pass their phobias on generation to generation.”
― Jackie Kay, Trumpet

tags: parents, phobias

8 likes

See all Jackie Kay's quotes »

Polls

What should be our February Group Read? (Open Choice)

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

18 votes 15.5%

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

14 votes 12.1%

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

13 votes 11.2%

The Waves by Virginia Woolf

7 votes 6.0%

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

6 votes 5.2%

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

5 votes 4.3%

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

5 votes 4.3%

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

5 votes 4.3%

Wise Children by Angela Carter

4 votes 3.4%

Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi

4 votes 3.4%

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez

4 votes 3.4%

The Outlander by Gil Adamson

3 votes 2.6%

Sing What You Cannot Say by Cathy Raymond

3 votes 2.6%

The Vagabond by Colette

3 votes 2.6%

America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins

3 votes 2.6%

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

3 votes 2.6%

The Bell by Iris Murdoch

3 votes 2.6%

The Adoption Papers by Jackie Kay

3 votes 2.6%

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West

2 votes 1.7%

Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945 by Marie Vassiltchikov

2 votes 1.7%

Dark Fires Shall Burn by Anna Westbrook

2 votes 1.7%

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

1 vote 0.9%

The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper

1 vote 0.9%

Believing Is Seeing: Seven Stories by Diana Wynne Jones

1 vote 0.9%

The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics

1 vote 0.9%

Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley

0 votes 0.0%

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

0 votes 0.0%

Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes by Gerd Brantenberg

0 votes 0.0%

Annie Allen by Gwendolyn Brooks

0 votes 0.0%

Inconsistent Love by Kiera

0 votes 0.0%

116 total votes

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